Priority three: Enhance organizational culture
Priority three
Enhance Organizational Culture — Raise our national profile as a vibrant and nurturing university community where all members feel valued, empowered to thrive, and experience a strong sense of belonging.
Objectives
- Develop a comprehensive value proposition for faculty and staff that is based on our Core Values and Leadership Standards.
- Establish the university as a national model of an inclusive campus that ensures unwavering exploration of all ideas, ideologies, and perspectives by promoting opportunities for creative and courageous conversations.
- Promote a campus-wide learning opportunity to acquire transferable skills that facilitate dialogue and discourse around polarizing topics without demoralization.
- To fulfill our core values, integrate the goals and recommendations of the university’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging Strategic Plan into each academic and operational unit at the university.
- Amplify external awareness of CMU’s scholarship and creative activities, creating a vibrant hub for the marketplace of ideas.
- Engage with local leaders to further a welcoming community on and off campus for all students, staff and faculty.
SMART goals
- Foster a culture in which all faculty and staff feel valued, empowered, and can realize the positive impact of their work on the university’s mission.
- Measure 1: Increase year-over-year staff retention rates as established annually.
- Measure 2: In conjunction with the Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging, support and implement strategies to attract, recruit, and hire diverse faculty and staff, and to sustain diversity across units.
- Measure 1: Increase year-over-year staff retention rates as established annually.
- Establish campuswide (students, faculty and staff) learning opportunities to acquire transferable skills that facilitate dialogue and discourse around polarizing topics without demoralization.
- Measure 1: Develop a plan to introduce approved dialogic learning activities to campus by May 2024.
- Measure 2: Expand dialogic learning activities to co-curricular offerings for students, and professional development options for staff and faculty by May 2025.
- Measure 1: Develop a plan to introduce approved dialogic learning activities to campus by May 2024.
- Create a community relations committee of civic leaders and appropriate university stakeholders to address mutually beneficial opportunities and activities to jointly enhance the university and local communities. Goals and areas of enhancement should include: a vibrant local economy, creating a welcoming community environment for a diverse university population, and creating a welcoming campus environment for community members.
- Measure: Identify committee members, create a clear committee charge, and formulate an initial plan for signature events and coordinated initiatives to improve relations, as gauged by direct feedback through the committee, by June 2025.
- Measure: Identify committee members, create a clear committee charge, and formulate an initial plan for signature events and coordinated initiatives to improve relations, as gauged by direct feedback through the committee, by June 2025.
2024 Progress
Successes
- Reinstated the CMU Staff Excellence Award Program and celebrated 17 recipients for contributions to the university community.
- Linked completion of an exit survey to the staff separation checklist to improve the collection of data related to employee retention.
- Held three workshops to introduce different approaches to dialogic training for students, faculty and staff.
- Launched a pilot program to assess the use of techniques and materials created by the Constructive Dialogue Institute.
- Adopted a proposal to create a Community Relations Committee, including a proposed charge and suggestions for membership.
Ongoing efforts
- Exploring data from the 2022 Employee Climate Survey and information from external resources (The Chronicle of Higher Ed, CUPA-HR and EAB) to identify strategies to enhance CMU’s culture and employee value proposition.
- Gathering data from the pilot groups completing dialogic training.
- Convening the Community Relations Committee to better strengthen ties and partnerships with the local community, with the goal of working together for the betterment of all community members.
